Set up a welcome sequence

A sequence is an ordered series of emails sent automatically—the classic use is a welcome series introducing new readers to you and your books. They live under your audience's Automations.

Building one

Create a sequence, pick its trigger, and write the emails with a delay before each one:

• A form—fires when someone signs up through that form (after confirmation, if it's double opt-in)
• A tag—fires the moment that tag is added to a reader, including by an integration
• Manual—you enroll readers yourself from their subscriber page

Then activate it. New readers matching the trigger start receiving the series; each reader gets each email once.

To hand out free books from an email, tick them under Deliver books with this email on that step — several at once is fine — and put {{magnet.download}} in the body. Preview shows each book's title on its button. Leave the boxes empty on a form-triggered sequence and the tag uses the form's bundle instead.

Good to know

• Enrollment is once per reader. Someone who signs up through the same form twice doesn't restart the series.
• Existing readers aren't swept in when you activate—triggers fire on new events, so your long-time subscribers won't suddenly get your welcome email. Want some of them in it anyway? See the next section.
• Duplicate to make a variant. Every sequence's row on the Automations list has a Duplicate button—the copy arrives as a draft with the same emails, timing, trigger, and branches, enrolled in by nobody until you activate it. Handy for seasonal variants of a welcome series, or trying a different version without touching the one that's running.
• Pausing freezes everyone where they are—including emails already queued for delivery, which are held with the sequence. Reactivating resumes everyone and releases the held emails, using the latest content—so pausing to fix a typo works exactly the way you'd hope.
• A reader who unsubscribes mid-sequence exits immediately, wherever they were.

Putting existing readers into a sequence

Triggers only watch for new events, so readers who already carry the tag—or who came in through an import—need to be enrolled deliberately. Two ways:

• One reader: open their subscriber page and enroll them from there.
• A batch: build a segment that matches the readers you mean (for example, has tag "Spring Giveaway"), then open the sequence and use Enroll a segment. It shows you exactly how many match before anything happens, and one click enrolls them all.

This is how you'd start a giveaway list on its own welcome series, or begin a re-engagement series for readers who've gone quiet. Three things make it safe to use freely: the sequence must be active first, nobody is ever enrolled twice (re-running the same enrollment just skips everyone already in), and unsubscribed or suppressed readers are excluded automatically.